So Very Strange
by ArticleOfDoubt
Summary: Being late always means something bad has to happen to the one who's late. Though... What does it mean to be the center of attention during an 'Initiation Event? Certainly 'he' doesn't know. Neither do I. Just read and review. As if you'd bother.
1. Newcomer Who?

**Seriously! I need to get more serious when it comes to writing… Oh… Those who have bothered to read this are probably saying, "What!? You don't even have any stories on here!"**

**Ehehe… That's because I struggle through the writing process… I easily get infected by the "Writer's Block" Virus. Well here goes nothing…**

**And Nintendo stuff belongs to Nintendo, y'know, disclaimer warnings and all that.**

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**Newcomer… Who?**

"_Custom Fight, Eruption! Begin!"_

"Eruption" as it was called, composed of a group of ten Smashers, Master Hand, and Crazy Hand, in an all out fight with no allies at all. The cooperating Smashers for the "Eruption" Event were: Marth, Pit, Ganondorf, Samus, Wario, Luigi, Kirby, Snake, Ike, and Pikachu. The pair of Hands had the first strike, they—at the same time—had slammed against the center of the stage, where all the Smashers were. It seems that only Luigi had gotten himself caught in the strike and had already received 69 of damage. The moment he came down from the blast, he was struck by Pikachu's "Thunder." The solemn fans of Luigi can be seen crying off in the distance. Now that leaves nine Smashers and two Hands.

After Luigi departed from the stage in a embarrassing manner—for he had collided with the "Screen"— it seems that the rest of the Smashers have grouped themselves into three. Samus occupied herself with the ever-so-slow Ganondorf and Ike. Wario and Kirby handled Snake while striking each other in the process. Which left Marth, Pit, and Pikachu to fight each other. While these three groups fought each other, the Hands tried repeatedly to strike any one of them, which has actually happened quite a few times. Especially for Wario and his big… Stomach area thing. About 45 seconds have passed since the start of the "Eruption" Event—Which means about 42.54 seconds since Luigi was booted—and now Kirby and Pikachu have gotten themselves blasted from the stage.

Samus, tired with the slowness of Ganondorf and Ike, went off to pick on the other four Smashers. Ike chased after her, ditching Ganondorf in the process. Eventually, the fight soon escalated into percentages in the 100's and the Hand's HP came down to around 150—For they had started with around 999 to cope with the amount of Smashers participating. The Hands resorted to using combination attacks and using that hateful move that kind of looks like a drill.

"Ugh… 'The Drill'…" Would be everyone's response right now.

Now two minutes have passed, leaving only Samus, Marth, Ike, and Kirby to face each other while handling the resilient Hands. The audience still continued to effortlessly cheer on their favorite Smasher—Unfortunately, the Smashers don't even have a lick of time to reciprocate the good cheers given to them. Kirby had copied Marth's ability and struck Ike repeatedly with the fake Falchion that he now possessed. Ike, now frustrated with Kirby, used Aether to get not only Kirby, but Marth and Samus as well. On the way down, Ike had smashed an incoming Crazy Hand, resulting in Crazy Hand to lose the rest of his HP and resign from the event—Yes, in a fit of an explosive rage, he disappeared from the field. Though there was still Master Hand who remained, and after Ike had landed, Master Hand came down on him and Kirby as a fist. Being blasted off the stage was the only outcome for those two, which left Samus, Marth, and Master Hand. Both Samus and Marth were at the high 200's—In the "Eruption" Event, damage is cut by one half—and Master Hand only had enough HP to stand one more hit. The two Smashers didn't bother about Master Hand and continued to fight each other. Seeing that he was being ignored, Master Hand began to constantly use aerial moves to attack, but every time he attacked, the move was either dodged or they weren't even there when he attacked.

After surviving much of Marth's onslaught of quick strikes, Samus repositioned herself at the left end of the field, waiting for Marth to strike—And to catch her breath for a bit. Marth, seeing this as an opportunity to blast her off of the stage immediately charged towards Samus, with Master Hand following suit. However, the moment that Marth had come to Samus, she jumped, dodging Marth's incoming strike. Unfortunately for Marth, he had put too much power into his running and had fallen off stage, and before he could recover, Samus came from above and smashed Marth downwards, leaving Samus—Who had recovered after falling to strike Marth—and Master Hand. Still at the left edge of the stage, Samus had only once chance to strike Master Hand, otherwise she'd lose the Event—She's around the middle 300's of her percentage. Master Hand had went up into the sky—Or rather beyond what the camera can see, as this was a live event—and came down as a drill, Samus took the chance before Master Hand came down and jumped off of the stage. She barely avoid the hit and in return had shot a missile at Master Hand as he tried to stop himself from spinning so much. The missile connected with his… Body, making him lose the rest of his HP. Like Crazy Hand, Master Hand had departed from the stage in a fit of explosions. Leaving Samus as the victor.

"_And the winner is--!"_

_"Error-- Error-- Error-- Forced Entry into the Stage has been found. Error…"_

The automated announcer repeated his ominous message, the audience and the Smashers themselves didn't know what the message meant, however, Master Hand clearly understood the intent of the message—Though, it's hard to see how anyone couldn't, it's rather obvious. He and Crazy Hand reappeared on the stage, sending Samus back into the Stadium the moment they arrived. The Hands floated for a while, watching for any sort of anomaly that was in the Stage System, and the audience watched as well, silently. From out of nowhere, a luminous liquid flooded the stage, in alert Master Hand summoned all of the fighters onto the stage—Which included the ones who didn't participate in the "Eruption" Event—and enlarged the field again to accommodate everyone. About ten seconds after Master Hand assembled the fighters, the liquid light vaporized into a strange black smokescreen, leaving everyone sort of dazed. When the smoke had cleared, a hooded figure stood in the center of the stage, wielding a war-scythe. It wore nothing but mostly black and blended well with the shadows of the many fighters that surrounded him, only the white mask that it wore and the silver shine of it's war-scythe were noticeable. Bowser, Ganondorf, Meta Knight, and King Dedede were the first ones to attack this stranger that appeared before them. They came from all sides, hoping to at least have one of them knock him down—The Smashers who bothered to look at the figure in detail discovered that it's broad shoulders gave a hint that it was a male. The male fighter twisted his body a bit, then spun fiercely, striking all four at once. The force of the strike was very strong, sending all four attackers off the stage. Many of the Smashers—as well as the audience—were shocked at his performance, though there wasn't time for that. He noticed their distraction and used it to take out Ness, Lucas, Kirby, Jigglypuff, Pikachu, Snake, and Pit—unfortunately.

Those who were left simply began to attack the male fighter all at once, but for every close range attack that was used, he sent the attacker flying. Those who had ranged attacks in their arsenal began using them, but it was only a matter of time before the long pole of his war-scythe was able to reach those who were attack. In a matter of minutes, every fighter was thrown off the stage in one way or another, leaving Master Hand and Crazy Hand the only two who remained on the field besides him. As both Hands were about to attack, the male fighter suddenly collapsed, more than likely from the extreme amounts of energy it must take to handle the 35 Smashers all at once. The audience began to chat among themselves, asking each other if they knew who that person was, and it was the same with the Smashers, everyone was left in a state of confusion.

"_To the audience here at the Stadium and at your homes…" _Master Hand's voiced boomed as he spoke, silencing everyone's questions all at once, _"…Here, we have a new Fighter to introduce to all of you."_

The moment Master Hand finished his words, he and Crazy Hand disappeared along with the male fighter, leaving everyone in all of Nintendo City, confused.

**--**

**End of Chapter One.**

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**Ahaha… Well there's the first chapter, I apologize for it being a little bit slow on the whole action aspect of things. It seems that I've made a character for myself on accident. Well, on purpose really… For now I'll call that newcomer of mine… Mind Manifestation 0132. Oh yeah. **

**Okay, I'll come up with a special move set too, but I'll place it on my profile-thingy for now.**

**Since I'm so close to having 9000 words for the first chapter… Why don't I waste some space here? I really want that 9000 word count to appear! So… What should I talk about? I know! Ah… Forget it, I lost my train of thought, now I'll never know what I wanted to say, now that just sucks so much. Ahahaha! While speaking to you all, I seem to have gone past my wanted quota of 9000 words and have hit past the 9150 word mark! But… I don't know how FanFiction's word count works, so I don't know if it works like my Word Processor's word count. Okay... It seems that FanFiction counts actual words and my Word Processor counts the letters... They really ought to clarify that.  
**

**Well… Goodbye!**

**P.S. Not the best ending… Yeah I know…**


	2. Just Call Me

**Here I am! With another chapter I suppose… I don't have much to say since this is a pre-written comment and all that jazz… So off with the disclaimer: Nintendo owns itself… And I own Mind Manifestation 0132, whose name shall be known in this chapter! I think… I also forgot to warn you all that I'm not very good when it comes to coming up with dialogue… So that means in some chapters it'll be full of detail and things like that, since I visualize more than speak… Ah well.**

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**Just Call Me…**

Today's events ended in a somewhat bitter tone, with the sudden interruption of the "Eruption" Event, not much is left to talk about. Well, at least it's evening now for Nintendo City, and everyone can return to their homes and at least try to forget about the day's happenings. Although it seems that many of the Smashers won't be getting much rest after hearing the news that a certain person is going to be joining them as a Smasher. Samus was the most tireless person out of everyone, during the earlier events, she was the last one to face him and it seemed to her that she got the hardest beating out of everyone. While Master Hand and Crazy Hand observed the actions of the sudden fight, Samus was left alone at the very end to deal with that person. She could clearly remember each of their moves as they exchanged blows with one another and in her remembrance she angrily threw her helmet at the wall across from her—for she was at her room at this time.

During their fight, Samus had resorted to using long range moves while dodging his war-scythe's incredible striking range. Her first move against him was a volley of three missiles all of which were blocked by that person's blade. She continued to use her missiles, while he continued to advance slowly towards her, blocking each missile that came to him. Eventually, he came very close to Samus and was about to deliver a point blank strike when she grappled him. It was during this time in their fight that Samus was able to see this person attempt to free himself from her grip and it was this person who fought all the others effortlessly. Perhaps she was lucky, but for her to think on the matter had cost her dearly, for he had forced himself from her grip and had jumped back quite a distance away from her. His back was hunched over and his breathing was somewhat hard, seeing this, Samus decided to charge at him while he tried to catch his breath. As she ran across the field—As the stage was extremely wide at that time and they were at opposite ends—Samus fired more missiles at him, every one of them connecting with his body. He ended up on the floor, still breathing hard, with Samus standing on top of him with her arm cannon in his face. No one made a move during this moment, both Samus and him were breathing very hard, and it was this moment that was most crucial. He was the one to make the first move, he looked to left and in doing so, he had made Samus look as well. Unfortunately for her, it was a feint—which she ended up regretting for falling for it—which gave him the chance to connect his war-scythe with her helmet. The force of the strike was weak compared to the power he had earlier, but it enough for him to send Samus off of the stage. This is where Samus's recollection ends.

"_I hate this. He defeated everyone so quickly… And he probably just toyed with me… But why with me? I'm thinking too much, I should get some sleep…" _She thought to herself while holding her pillow tightly, her hate for that person equaled the amount of force she used to strangle her pillow.

While in the middle of murdering her pillow, she heard a light tapping on her door. She reacted by getting back into her Power Suit and approached the door carefully—more than likely, her "bounty hunter paranoia" kicked in right around now. She allowed entry to however it was and as the door slid to the side, she found him in front of her. For a moment neither of them said anything, and the only thing Samus wanted to do was get revenge for the humiliation of falling for his feint. When Samus calmed her welling rage, she saw that he wasn't there anymore, he was already inside, lying on her bed. Before she made any advances on him, she carefully observed him. He had his hands folded on his stomach and the mask that identified him was slightly askew.

"Good morning, Samus." He suddenly spoke, looking directly at Samus. His mask tilted a bit more to reveal a small part of his cheek. He had very light skin, almost transparent.

"…You're voice sounds childish for one who fought so well. And it's not morning, it's almost midnight." It was the only thing that Samus could say, she was completely shocked at the sound of his voice and the words that they had sculpted. To her, it just sounded very odd.

"Here it might be, but somewhere else… It's morning. Anyway, I want you to come walk with me outside for a while." His request sounded odd, but to her, he was dead serious about his request. Since she knew how well he can fight—Although she believes that the feint he had pulled shouldn't count—meaning she had to make the right choice, unfortunately.

"Fine." She answered dully, but it was enough to satisfy his ears. _"I suppose I'll use this change to find out something about him… Perhaps I'll get to see his face?"_

"Shall we then?" He fixed his mask and followed Samus out the room. As they walked, they did so at each other's side, in caution of each other. Since Samus's room was on the third floor—the last room in the east hallway—they had to walk quite a ways before reaching his intended destination, and luckily, no one was awake during this time, which meant no questions or rumors for Samus later in the morning. After a minute of brisk walking they finally made it outside. There was nothing spectacular to see, the usual winter snow was already on the ground, casting its blue shadows on the ground, the moon was blocked by the thick clouds above, and Nintendo City—which was a little far from Smash Mansion—was still as bright as ever.

"What is it that you want exactly?" Samus asked ruthlessly as soon as they came outside.

"Nothing really, just felt like acting on a whim." Unrestrained and immediate, that was his reply.

"_Is there something wrong with this person? He just suddenly brings me out here… Only out of a whim!?" _Samus's thoughts began to rage again, only this time she didn't have her already half dead pillow with her to vent her stress. _"There must be something I can do about this person, just who is he anyway?"_

"I'm sorry." Two words, all it took was two words to suddenly break Samus's train of thought, but what caught her attention more was that he was apologizing, but for what? He didn't allow her anytime to ponder though, after finishing those two words, he turned towards her and pulled off his mask. His blunt action slightly left Samus confused, again.

"This is a secret between you and me… Don't ask me why, but I have a feeling that I can put my faith into you…" He spoke quietly now due to the embarrassment of showing his face to someone he doesn't even know well enough. Her prediction was right and she ended up being too busy with staring at his face. His skin was somewhat transparent and his face was like that of a prepubescent young man, though his eyes were cold and hard—even though they were red. Beyond the details of his face, Samus noticed that it began to snow again, though the snow wasn't really important right now.

"I apologize again…" His face went from expressionless to melancholic.

"Apologizing is useless if you don't have anything to be sorry about, so don't waste those sort of words on me. I know what being sorry is, and this isn't it." She replied immediately, "Really… Can't you just explain yourself?"

"Perhaps, but it's a little difficult, because of this situation that I've put myself in…" He looked up to the sky, watching the snow fall for a bit before refocusing his sight on Samus's visor.

"If I give you the chance to give me a decent explanation, will you give it to me then?" She asked, coming a few steps towards him.

"Why not? In due time I shall explain to you… But first lets go inside, the morning is approaching and we'll need to get some sleep." It wasn't exactly the reply that Samus wanted, but at least it was something.

"Before we go back in… Do you mind telling me your name?" Samus was anxious for an answer, she even walked a few more steps closer towards him—they were originally around 20 feet apart.

"I don't mind… It's…"

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**End of Chapter 2**

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**Okay… I admit, not the best ending like last time, but at least it's something… I can't help it if I suck so much! Well I managed to write at least this much for the 2****nd**** Chapter… And as far as things go with the story… I have no idea. **

**Ehehe… I lied about the name thing… You'll find out the next chapter… Don't worry too much about it. I was sorta half asleep while writing this entire chapter so it'll sound odd… I just know it. Hopefully it won't sound too bad, I'm just trying to work up my character's personality… Which is going to end up being a pretty strange one anyway.**

**I've talked too much! See you next time!**


	3. The Start of our Friendship, Right?

**Well aren't I late? School had me busy and my lousy wireless keyboard kept on phasing out on me… So that's why I'm late… Sorta. And I don't own anything that Nintendo owns… Even Samus belongs to Nintendo… Sadly. I do own Mind Manifestation 0132.**

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**The Start of our Friendship, Right?**

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"…" Samus found her self in a half-sitting position. For reasons unknown to her, she found herself awakening to the morning in that odd posture of hers. A dim light poured in from the window that faced in the direction of the foot of her bed. A couple of rays of light drifted into Samus's line of sight, causing her eyes to go into a glare. Even without the light, she would still glare, apparently upset about something. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she pulled her legs over to the side of the bed, letting her knees bend as the bottom portion of her legs were subdued by gravity. She—who faced the left wall of her room—turned to the left so that she was standing by her door. On it, hung in a place a small mirror, suitable for getting a good look at one's face. Samus is still a woman no matter how cold or masculine her front appears to be, a touch-up every so often wouldn't be too bad for her. Especially now.

"I… Dreamed all of that?" Unfortunately for Samus, what she thought were the events of last night came to call itself as a dream. To her, it felt completely real, but this is the reality of things: The two never spoke to each other last night. At least, that's how the fact presented itself to Samus, but due to her stubbornness, she wouldn't accept that kind of answer. She's curious and she wants to find the answer that will satisfy her.

After spending a couple of seconds messing around with her hair, her Power Suit came around her figure, hiding her beautiful face from public view. Instead of pressing on a certain switch that changes the door's locked position to open, she decided on a more barbaric solution by kicking on the door. A piece of fine machinery like that doesn't deserve to be kicked by a person that it served well for so long and as if it were alive, the door groaned and stalled for a couple of seconds before moving. Ignoring the door's newfound—or old—feelings of resentment, Samus took another left in order to reach the common area. Without saying anything to the others who were already awake—like Peach, Pikachu, and Snake—hurried over to the nearest set of stairs and threw herself over its handrail. Though it's not advised to do so, she did it anyway and landed a good ten to thirteen seconds after falling. As if she didn't feel anything at all, she stood up from the slight indentation to the floor that she caused and made her way to the dining hall in the southern portion of the mansion—which meant she had to turn all the way around. She pushed past the double doors and found no one in there, but a certain figure, wearing a certain robe and a certain mask. What was odd though, was that he held to melons in his hands, and had an orange precariously perched on the top of his hooded head. The melons and the orange were all connected to each other by a series of wires that when in all kinds of directions and there were some wires that didn't make full connections. Now what could he be doing?

"…" Silence was the only thing that Samus could think of in regards to what she just saw. Though she hate an unfounded dislike for the person, she couldn't help by try to hold back her laughter. That person stood atop the chair that was to the left of the head chair all the way at the end of the long dining table. No movement came from that person or from Samus and the two just stood in their places for a while, a low hum could be heard from him.

"It doesn't work!" A child-like shout came from him and in exasperation, he smashed the two melons above his head, sending fruity shrapnel in all kinds of places. A little chunk of the green melon smacked Samus right on the visor, which made her let out a slight gasp. However, her rather erotic sounding gasp was not heard by him and he continued to vent his frustrations on his fruits by taking the orange from his head and throwing that poor thing to the nearest window that he could find. By some odd reason, his target was a window on Samus's right. Again, fruity shrapnel went in Samus's direction.

"…Ah!? It's Samus!" He finally noticed, through his violence, that Samus was still standing in the same position that she was five minutes ago, shocked. He jumped off of his chair and tried to land squarely on the floor—even though the distance between him and the floor was so short—unfortunately for him, he ended up slipping on the fruit juice that he made. Even though the melons would want more of a revenge than that, it would have to do for now. He miraculously landed on the top of his head, falling away from Samus after a couple seconds of complete standstill. It was only Samus who tried to not make any sort of movement at this point. Even for someone like her, something like this is way too amusing to refuse laughing.

"No, I did not see that one coming, not at all. It hurts a lot." He spoke as if he were speaking to someone nearby, scrambling to his feet after giving a couple of seconds to contemplate the level of pain that he felt. Brushing himself off—even if the attempt was futile—he energetically walked over to a now-writhing Samus. This person lowered himself enough so that his knees were slightly level with Samus's shoulders. Without giving a warning, he knocked on Samus's visor, cutting her muffled laughter into a sudden snort and gag. In realization that she was completely acting out of her imposed character, Samus stood up from her awkward position and made herself appear as if nothing had happened only a moment ago. He tried to ask Samus if she was alright, but the moment he uttered a sound, Samus interrupted him with a coughing sound. Not wanting to put up a fight about it, he too stood up as well and began to speak, "…Did you enjoy your dream last night?"

"…! How did you know about tha--" He raised a finger to the area that covered Samus's mouth. Even if it was covered, the gesture itself was enough to silence her. His began to tremble without reason, leaving Samus a little afraid of this person of anonymous identity.

"Yes, the reality of your dreams is very much akin to that of what is here… It's somewhat disappointing to see, but the dreams you can develop should be wonderful indeed. Now, back to the main point… How did I know? Weren't the two of us chatting away during that night? It's a shame that you woke up before I was able to tell you my name and I do love to confuse people, so I apologize for making things hard on you." Kind of like a forced realization, Samus sort of understood the intent of his words. Even though they came out as playful and with no sign of malice in them at all, she clearly understood that he picked her to be an object that is to be played with. Knowing this, Samus immediately thought of ways to verbally throw around him the same way she thought he was doing to her.

"Let's move somewhere else. Somewhere with more air." She believed that he didn't catch that obvious mistake in those two cold sentences. Samus doesn't have a need for air if she's in a contained system of mechanics, but she still said it anyway. Trying her best to ignore her mistake and wanting to avoid any questioning from him, she pushed past the doors that were behind here and took a right. From that right, she walked alongside a wall with him in tow until a passage way presented itself to the right. She took this passage passing by up to three doors to her left until the hallway ended with a wooded door decorated with a vein-like metal that had silver leaves and flowers connected to the ends. Before Samus's hand could be placed on the door, he came from behind her and pushed through the door by using his head, tumbling into the garden. It turns out that he has a light body, as he had rolled quite the distance until he collided with the large fountain that made itself known as the center piece of the garden.

"This part of the Mansion's grounds is even more grand that the area that we were in last night! Don't you think so too Samus?" Though it was sort of unnoticeable, but as he spoke, his voice turned from a child's to the voice of a young lady. Unfortunately for Samus, she couldn't tell the difference because to her, those two kinds of voices are pretty much the same. In any case, aside from the fountain, the remaining parts of the garden held its own part of the beauty that he saw. The garden focused on having five sets of large grass rings with marble tile rings in between them—the rings had gaps marked in black granite tiles to allow a path to be made from the doors that connect to the garden. Strange plants grew in the middle of each grass ring gap, reaching to a maximum of six feet, where a set of bulbous objects provided a dull glow.

"No. It's not." Samus continued with her act, even though it was contradictory to how she felt about the garden. Before he appeared, she admired the beauty of the garden just as much as he did, but that doesn't matter now, all she wants is to satisfy her curiosity of this person. She walked over to that person in question—who had remained in the same slumped position since colliding with the fountain—and kicked him on the left side of his body without a word. He let out a slight whimper from the pain, of course it would be odd for someone with a seemingly human body to not feel anything, since a kick from a Samus in her Power Suit is equal to extreme pain.

"Was that even necessary? And don't hurt Eshira!" The first part was understandable, but Eshira?

"Eshira?" While Samus's curiosity was raised even further by his utterance of some sort of name, he lifted himself from the ground, holding on to the side that Samus kicked, apparently in pain. He left out a slight laugh, for no reason at all. In a situation where one is kicked, Samus believed that the commonplace reaction was to become upset like he had done a moment before, but now he had just laughed. She had a couple of strange ideas as to why he would laugh, but she drove those thoughts away, since being of a virgin mind constitutes some form of innocence, even if she was among the coldest bounty hunters.

"Eshira. You hurt her while I was in her form, now the pain is going to transfer over to my default identity at a later point. It's troublesome, but I suppose it's something that I'll have to deal with." He sat on the edge of the fountain, letting out a sigh, still holding onto his side. A couple of seconds later, while Samus was trying to sort out her confused thoughts, he let out another laugh. Perhaps he knew that Samus was confused under that orange armor of hers? Whatever the reason was, just thinking about it forced Samus to turn her gaze away from him and when she turned her eyes back to its original position, he was standing in front of her, holding his mask with his right hand.

"What are you doing?" Was the only thing that Samus could come out with. She didn't keep up with her façade, she just wanted to know what he was about to do and why he was going to do it. Even if she didn't explicitly ask for the reason, she just expected it to come out from him.

"You want to see right? Eshira that is. You want to right? Aren't you curios? I'd bet you are." He danced around Samus, letting his feminine voice become more noticeable so that Samus could realize that his voice had made a change already.

"Just do it and stop circling me." He nodded and stopped right in front of her. Taking a low bow, he removed the mask when he was bending at his lowest point and flung himself back into position, his hood falling behind his head as he came up. Before Samus stood a beauty completely different from the melancholic young man she saw from under that mask. His face was that of a girl's but didn't have the sharp and cat like qualities that Samus had. His violet eyes stared into Samus's visor, as if he yearned for her to gaze at him the same way. However, Samus was distracted by long and strangely decorated black hair. The decorations in his hair were composed of three silver chainlike objects that occupied the back and sides of his head. Each of those chains ended with another strange ornament in the shape of a dagger. Samus's eyes trailed one of those chains and eventually set her eyes on his chest and found that it had grown larger since that fruit experiment he had going on earlier. For a moment or two, Samus felt a little envious about his bust size and almost instinctively touched her own—over her armor of course.

"I think that you're staring a bit too hard at my body. It's odd, but it sort of feels good…" Realizing that she had her head inclining at an angle, Samus snapped her head back into a position where she could meet his gaze. Now, Samus never dealt with girls of this time—probably except for Peach, but she doesn't really count—but for some reason, she felt her body heating up. She's probably in heat.

"Shut it. Who are you anyway? You're different from last night."

"I'm Eshira right now, who you saw last night was Avei, and this morning I was Istha. Technically, I just have one personality with five different bodies to exploit. It's not like those bodies are separated in anyway though, they all exist in here." The current him, Eshira, pointed to the left side of his chest, where his heart should be. He smiled for a moment but soon after went into a light state of shock. He looked down to his right hand and started to utter a few incomprehensible things before he looked into Samus's visor again, apparently having some sort of answer, "I miscounted! It's six bodies actually, I forgot to count myself."

"Then who are you by default?" Samus didn't have the energy to keep up with her cold act, her voice had a little more warmth in it and a bit of stress too, since handling a person as strange as this person was hard.

"R-E-T-I-A. It's an acronym for the other bodies that exist inside of me, but you can simply say the acronym as Retia. Wait, don't people normally do that anyway? Well, I felt like explaining anyway… So thanks for letting me use up more of your life to tell you all this."

"…So you're Eshira right now?"

"Yes. I'd probably tell you ahead of time when I change into one of the other five bodies I have available, I'll probably add in a little more effort to come up with a suitable personality for each one, since I haven't done so before. However, don't expect me to turn into Retia so often… Just for various reasons of course…" He went into his own world from that point, talking about aimless things while Samus stared at him, still confused from last night to now. Anyone would have to wonder why someone like Retia—or Eshira—would plague a given person, in this case it's Samus, with odd dialogue.

"…Why me?" She wanted to find out why Eshira chose her above all others to annoy and confuse.

"Why what? Can you be a little more specific?"

"Is there any reason as to why you show an… attachment to me?" Samus could have said that better, but she didn't. Now she has to cope with another mistake in her dialect.

"I want to, because I found you to be ve--" A sudden siren like sound interrupted Eshira and immediately after, Master Hand's voice emerged from wherever the intercom system was placed.

"_Everyone, report to the Stadium's South Entrance for the 'Initiation Event' that is to be held for Retia, our newest addition to our family of fighters. That is all."_

"Eshira, you came at a very bad time. If you had come a little sooner than this, you might have been able to avoid Crazy Hand's slew of new events that he created for the sake of making things more energetic around here. Now that you've come, he finally gets to use that Event on you. I hope you're ready. See you at the Stadium." Samus placed a hand on Eshira's left shoulder before walking away from the garden, heading over to the Stadium that was behind the Mansion.

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**End of Chapter 3**

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**So this time around, I'm not good with endings and I have much to do in order to write more for this story here. If you don't understand where I'm going with this, then I love you. Since I don't understand what I'm doing either. Let's just hope that it sounds awesome, yeah? Oh yes… I'd bet those few readers I had doubted that I would have a return, but here I am! School is horrible by the way. I want out.**

**Before I go, here's a list of the names Retia has so far:**

**R - ?  
****E - Eshira****  
T - ?****  
I - Istha  
A - Avei**

**I think that I went too fast in already revealing four out of the six names that he has (Well, it's seven if you count that whole Mind Manifestation that I had going on for a while.) but that's okay. I think. **


	4. It's a Strange Laugh, but I Like it

**As I write this, I don't really know when this will be finished, but yeah. I don't like AP, taking away the livelihood of the remaining portions of my teenage years. It's only 1 class! And yet… No. Don't complain here Doubt, you can't do that. The readers don't want complains. But what readers? …I think I'll go on with the story know yeah? **

**As usual, I can't even have a bit of Samus's hair to keep with me, Nintendo owns her and everyone else really. Except for Retia!**

**Warning: Forgive me if I refer to Retia as a 'he' or a 'she,' since he has the capability of being either a girl or a boy, I might confuse myself as to which person Retia is at the moment. Meh.**

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**It's a Strange Laugh, but I Like it…**

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Eshira was the last one to arrive at the South Entrance to the Stadium and the glances he received from the others made a quick statement of hostility—which of course only applies to those who are capable of malice—then resumed to look at the closed Entrance. The hosts of the event—Master Hand and Crazy Hand—had not appeared yet, so the others chatted amongst each other while Eshira tried to imagine what this Event could possibly be like with all of the fighters assembled. His first idea was that he would be presented with a massive cake that used Samus as the showpiece of sorts. Unfortunately for him, there is no cake, he just doesn't know it yet. Eshira's second idea involved the Eruption Event that he happened to interrupt, only on a much larger scale. Perhaps this second idea of his was the only one to be close to the actual details of the Event. Only the other fighters and the Hands themselves knew of the properties of this Event. For the other fighters, some of them thought that under Eshira's mask—for she had placed it back on her face before heading to the stadium—she was going through a psychological beating. Well, assumptions are just assumptions.

A couple of minutes went by with nothing significant happening—besides Bowser having almost eaten Ness alive for some unknown reason—until Master Hand slowly faded in, appearing in front of the Entrance with the kind of pride and order that you don't normally expect from a glove. Crazy Hand appeared a couple of seconds after, having shown himself in the style of an explosion accompanied by many pieces of candy. Almost all of the younger fighters went for the multicolored wrapped pieces of candy before going back to their spots. It was almost missed, but Eshira was able to catch Marth fetching a few morsels for himself, each one of them was a heart shaped piece of chocolate.

"I'm glad to see that everyone made it on time. Now if I can have Retia come up to the front…" Eshira did as he was told, weaving his way through the fighters in order to get on the slightly raised platform that was connected to the Entrance. Master Hand and Crazy Hand floated in front of Retia as soon as he was able to get his back to the door that blocked the entrance. Crazy Hand, who randomly decided that it was time for several hours of aerobics, had to be silenced by his alter ego before things moved in the more appropriate direction, "…Now I'm sure that everyone knows about the rules for this particular event, but since Retia recently came to us in the most… Interesting manner, I'll take the liberty of explaining. The 'Initiation Event' as it's called is a variation to a Stock Match No Time-Limit fight. While Retia will be in possession of five or so chances to fight, everyone else will have one chance. However, to make things a little more difficult, all fighters except for Retia will receive a tenfold boost to their abilities. Let it be known though, that everyone has the possibility of hitting everyone else, but us Hands can allow for that… Since the main point of this Event is to be the only one who knocks out Retia. Hopefully the last will be able to last for more than a couple of seconds this time around… Knowing that the Event tests didn't turn out so well…"

With Master Hand's voice ending on a rather ominous tone, he and Crazy Hand disappeared before everyone, bringing Eshira along with them. They appeared on the 'PictoChat' Stage and surrounding the black platform were a plethora of many screens that depicted the number of fans who appeared to watch this Event exclusive to Nintendo City. Master Hand and Crazy Hand floated to the opposite sides of the stage, each one with a DS floating in front of them—their names could be seen on the platform of the stage. The stage began to expand and form more platforms in order to fit in all the other fighters into the stage. As the they appeared on to the stage in their own ways, the crowds could be heard, screaming and shouting the name of the ones they worship. Such beautiful worship it is…

"_3... 2... 1... Initiation Event! START!"_

The automated announcer, Master Hand, Crazy Hand, and the fans all brought the start to the Event and immediately after the moment their voices came out, many of the fighters rushed over to the center where Eshira stood. Those fighters were: Snake, Ike, King Dedede, Wario, Sonic, Bowser, Ganondorf, Wolf, and Samus. The others decided that it would be too crowded to fight and have taken roost on the many available platforms that soar low to high above the original platform. Luckily for the fighters who decided to watch before taking action, they now learn that Retia—since they do not know that Retia is acting under the form of Eshira, so they'll just call him as such—has the ability to block and counter all attacks simultaneous like Fox's Reflector. Those fighters who were struck upon by Eshira's standard special attack, 'Stream,' didn't fly far, even if they were dealt twice the total damage that Eshira would have faced. Without wasting a single moment, Eshira dropped her shield and proceeded to take out the ones who attack her one by one. Eshira started with Sonic, attacking him repeatedly with bluish orbs that he held onto with his hands. Every so often, while attacking Sonic, he would have to stop for a moment in order to put up his 'Stream' in order to get rid of the same attackers.

Within 22.34 seconds, Sonic was already in the red zone and had to be forced to take a strategic retreat behind the others fighting with him. Unfortunately, Eshira weaved through the rest skillfully as they charged towards him, allowing for Eshira to barely grab Sonic by that arm. He tossed Sonic towards the others behind them and jumped forward so that he now was a couple of feet above them. Eshira then came down with his downward special attack, 'Wave,' head Sonic square on the chest, finally sending him flying. Since 'Wave' had a large splash radius with the negative effect of being slow to reach its maximum radius, the rest of Eshira's move was fairly easy to dodge. The remaining active fighters tried to work in cooperation with each other, using tactics that allow Eshira barely any openings to take advantage of. By doing this, Eshira was forced to use 'Stream' a lot more than usually and it seems that Marth noticed something about that particular move.

"Everyone… Retia hasn't been hit even once right?" He asked while taking a small bite out of one of those chocolates that he had managed to snag during the slight confusion of Crazy Hand's explosive entry.

"That's right." Was everyone's response. All of them gave Marth dull responses, but it should have been expected, especially when an unknown fighter is holding his own against overly enhanced fighters. That surely must be something to be amazed about.

"…If anyone wants to listen, if Retia hasn't been hit yet, then why does his percentage read in the 100's?" Marth's question caught the rest of the watching fighter's attention. They all took a glance at the same screen that Marth was looking at and found that Retia's damage count had already exceeded the 100's. They decided to observe Retia through the screens instead of on the stage, in order to discover the mystery to his damage. During the moment that the inactive fighters made that mutual decision, Eshira was busy handling Bowser and Ike after having thrown Wario and Snake off the stage. The more he picked off, the tighter their formations got and this time, Eshira was in a rather troublesome position. With Ike behind him with 'Eruption' at the ready and with Bowser about the use his flames on him, the only option he had was to move in Bowser's direction. A bright orange flame came from Bowser's mouth as Eshira desperately tried to find a way to cover himself. He found a solution by ducking in between Bowser's legs and crawling to the other side. Once he had a more open position, he grabbed Bowser by the tail and began to wield him as a flail. He ran to both sides of the stage, hitting everyone who was in his path. This excluded Samus and Wolf, who managed to duck or jump over the massive thing…

'I think the others know that I can't use any of my special moves… With the first set of people who attacked me, except for Samus and Wolf, their formations are using attacks that come at me from all sides. I'm not sure if I can keep up for long, but I'm sure that I should be able to win this without having to sacrifice any of my stock lives. However… What is my motivation anyway?' Eshira turns into a heavy thinker when fighting and it's no exception at this time. A couple of minutes have already passed since the start of the Event and Eshira had already reached passed the 400's while still maintaining many close calls. With only Samus and Wolf remaining from the first wave, they were joined by a second wave of strategically prepared fighters. This new group consisted of: Marth, Mario, Luigi, Zelda, Link, Lucas, and Ness. The remaining fighters were to fill in if any of the fighters from the second or first wave were to be removed. Eshira's ability to avoid nine simultaneous attacks was simply stunning. Without having to be pressed into using 'Stream,' he was able to exploit the openings of everyone the same way he did with Bowser.

'At least I only have to deal with nine at the moment otherwise I'd have t--' While avoiding another set of nine attacks, a tenth and eleventh attack came from under—since Eshira was in the air at the time—and from his right side. He was forced to use 'Stream' and 'Wave' as a successive combo in order to see that Charizard and Kirby joined in the fight. Beyond them, Pikachu, Peach, Olimar, and Donkey Kong could be seen approaching from both ends of the stage. At this point, Crazy Hand decided to finally change the appearance of the drawings and settled with a thorn covered plan that had a massive flame on it. Unfortunately for Eshira, the new drawing appeared behind him and he nearly received a good amount of damage if not for 'Stream.' However, the fiery plant halved Eshira's issues, leaving Wolf, Mario, Peach, Olimar, Pikachu, Charizard, and Kirby to deal with while the rest were trapped by the massive plant. Without anyone behind him, Eshira pushed towards the left side of the stage, using the closest—which turned out to be Wolf—opponent as a flail. After dealing all the damage he could possibly dish out on the others before losing his grip on Wolf's tail, Eshira excitedly tossed Wolf in the direction of the plant's thorns. Eshira rushed away from the other fighters—who were forced to the edge of the stage thanks to Eshira's insane tossing of a certain character—and kicked Wolf into the fire as he made a rebound from the damage of the thorns…

"He'd be delicious if dipped in chocolate!" For some odd reason, Crazy Hand made an input that didn't really serve any real purpose, but luckily for a certain bounty hunter by the name of Samus, she made a mental note while in the more peaceful section of the divided stage to remember those words. She didn't have a concrete reason as to why she made a note of it, but perhaps it was because the prospect of covering a person in chocolate was very… Delicious…

Another set of minutes have passed and the excitement of the fans keeps on growing. With the fighters on Eshira's side now gone, the only thing to do was to wait for the plant drawing to be replaced with something else. No one actually knew that the plant could be gotten rid of with a lot of long ranged attacks. Of course, this is what Eshira did, however, since using Eshira's abilities would cause his damage to climb further and further, Retia decided to take on a healthier approach. Without anyone noticing, except for the watching fans and the Hands, Retia switch from Eshira to Avei, the one who wields the war-scythe that dominated everyone in the Eruption Event not too long ago. Having a slight personality change, Avei had a large smile on his face under his mask as opposed to Eshira's serious and calculating face.

"Here I go!" With a shout and almost insane laughter, Avei chopped away at the plant with much more vigor than he had displayed in his intrusion and during the time he and Samus had spent together in Samus's dream. On the other side, some of the fighters felt a cold chill, a strange feeling to feel, especially when every fighter has gone through their own personal hardships that should have had an influence on their courage and what not. However, the usually antagonist each of those fighters had to face typically had some sort of evil agenda that they had going on, but from Avei, what they felt was not that kind of evil. Instead, it was joy. A happiness that made one feel for their life in a system that prevents any kind of death was definitely something to fear much more than evil. Sadly for them, only seconds remained before that source of joy came rushing in. With one last hack at the plant, the burning object fell in the direction of the fearing and steady fighters. Due to the shock of something so big falling so suddenly, many of the fighters couldn't avoid the impact and were thus sent off in the most magnificent, yet humiliating way. It would probably look like a bunch of small meteors going in the wrong direction. Poor fighters, may they receive the ever so faithful love of their fans.

"Is it just me… Or does Retia look a bit different?" Even though the remain fighters—Samus, Link, and Meta Knight—all agreed to Marth's question, it was just plain too obvious a difference to not notice. Well, Marth is Marth, he might be smart some of the time, but not all of the time.

"Ah!? Should you be paying attention to what's in front of you instead of what's beside you and behind you!?" Avei appeared in front of Marth and without letting him respond with a reaction that comprised of more than a shocked face, Avei slammed Marth into the ground with the back of his war-scythe then sent him flying after spinning around once to ensure that enough power was put into the blow. It's seems that Avei ran out of words to say, but he still kept his oddly warped smile as he tore through Link and Meta Knight, refusing to give them some sort of odd commentary to accompany their passing into the room that all fighters appear in when they're sent flying. With only Samus left to fight Avei, the events of the 'Eruption' came into both their minds during the silent second between the two. The both of them fought the same way as that time, only this time around, Samus took full advantage of her increased power to land some close calls on Avei. At least her fighting went up a notch, she couldn't get much done during the beginning the Event, since there was so many fighters present at once, but since it's simply a one on one fight, Samus's truest fighting ability can be brought out here. They shared blow after blow, neither one skipping a beat, they kept on going and going, capturing the attention of everyone. It was almost like magic, the way they fought…

--

'This time… It's my victory.' Even though Samus thought that she should have much more energy than just settling for being contempt, but she couldn't. There was something behind that feeling of victory that simply bit at her and wouldn't stop until Samus realized what it was. Of course, for someone like Samus, it didn't take too long to figure out. It was sympathy. How she came to that kind of answer, she would never exactly know, but she felt that it probably came from another set of strange feelings that she held towards Retia—or his current form of Avei. His very existence was already a confusing issue, from the Hands accepting him to practically being almost accepted as one of the fighters, Samus though it was all rather strange. She even thought that reactions from the fans at the end of their one on one match was strange too. They actually cheered for him as they fought, because of that, Samus was forced to believe that they either forgot about all of that or that Avei probably had something to do with it.

"I love how you're giving so much thought about me, it almost wants to make me cry." Avei's childlike voice was heard to the left of Samus's head. She whipped her head to the left in surprise to see Avei smiling without a mask covering his face. He was of course, in the same lying position as Samus, with his hands folded on his chest. He really is a strange one. Before Samus tried to speak, she saw something glistening on the corners of Avei's mouth. Since the room was dark and she couldn't see anything properly unless it was in her face, she passed it off as if it were nothing. However, Avei knew very well what it was. His own blood, poured silently from the corners of his mouth, the partial result of being careless with his body. For his sake and probably for Samus's sake, he kept quiet about the ordeal.

"Why are you here? To confuse me some more with the odd things that you do?" Samus was shocked at the sound of her voice, she almost sounded as if she enjoyed playing this game with Avei. She tried to fill her thoughts of other things, but as she tried to distract the thoughts that involve Avei, he cut of her attempts by chuckling. He leaned over a bit and licked Samus on the cheek, distracting her even more. For someone so childlike, he sure does have some adult-like qualities. Backing away in shock, Samus almost let out a surprise moan, she wouldn't squeal or anything like that, she's Samus.

"I'd actually prefer it if you had an understanding of why things are as they are… You know? It makes it easier on me to have someone who understands what I'm doing and you're the perfect candidate for that!" He suddenly sat up from his lying position and transitioned into a sitting one. He turned himself so that he was facing Samus. No matter what he did, Samus felt as if she wouldn't be able to follow whatever this person was going to do. No matter what. Even if she did try, she'd probably need him to explain what in the world is going on in his mind. Like right now for example, "Where shall I start…?"

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**End of Chapter 4**

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**Well aren't I mean? Well… It was something… And I know the title doesn't make sense with the chapter, but bear with it as I do something in this little note at the bottom. I'm pretty sure a lot of you have noticed I made a couple of references to the kind of move sets used in Brawl, Melee, and the 64 version, but it's probably the only thing I'll use from the games without making a variation to it. I mean it'd be odd If sudden every single character had all of there super power-ups available from the get go. Now that's just unfair. And I'm sorry if I'm confusing anyone with the whole Identity Switching I'm doing with Retia, Eshira, Avei, and Istha… You'll probably see more of that, because this is supposed to be the most logically strange… Er… Thing I could come up with!**

**I loved the exponential rise in hits I had the other day. I loved it.**


End file.
